Banks

We've always known that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Machiavelli, Hitler and George Bush II are good examples, for different reasons.

So why do we give the financial industry the same types of unregulated power we used to grant to kings and lords?

In a kingdom, peasants payed a fee to the king, not a tax, but rent to use the land for business. In banking, you pay banking fees for the right to keep your money in a safe institution.

It's easy to see how the first situation seems mob-like and unfair, if I'm contributing to a kingdom's success, why should I pay additional fees?

But with banks, conceiving of our money as property might help us see that it's the same thing.

A bank is allowed to use your money to lend out to other consumers or businesses. They make money on the deal but take a far-bigger percentage than you see in interest. Also, the aforementioned fees can be used to invest in things like stocks and bonds, money which is used to strengthen the kingdom. Strength gained on the back of your hard work, of which you share no benefit.

The deregulation of banks made this worse.

One thing that has always existed at banks is the greed and non-compassion associated with turning a customer's money into more money, while shutting them out of the benefits. The lack of humanity in dishing out lucrative housing loans to those who couldn't pay them resulted in a full blown crisis in 2008.

But the bankers continue receiving bonuses that make a doctor or lawyer's salary look dismal, not to mention a working mother of two who is by necessity, forced to bank at her local branch. When I worked in special education it would break my heart to see teachers paying for school supplies out of there own pockets.

Have you ever tried to get on a lease without a bank, or put gas in your tank at midnight when there is no attendant?

We need banks. We don't need to choose the ones who put us on with shiny blue storefronts and "low fees". We need to find a way to inject some compassion into our capitalism.

Or we're all done for. You. Me. The environment. All of it will suffer because we have given the power of billions of dollars to a handful of individuals. You think history would have taught us differently.

Solo Show

I've been in bands for about ten years now. I joined my first, One Too Short (named after my best friend, our vertically challenged drummer) shortly after learning how to make any noise on the guitar at all sometime around the 7th grade. I always had a penchant for performance, putting on plays and show in my parents living room, but this was a whole new, loud, sexually charged world of rock and roll that I've been enjoying ever since. Playing at Red Rocks and touring across this amazing country of ours have been the highlights of a career which I hope is just beginning.

More than a desire to perform, I've always had a desire to be successful. Inherited from my amazing father who worked all day into the night and was unbelievably committed to raising my punk-ass, I don't care if I'm selling rock candy or records, I want to be the best. It's a common trait and what makes us all tick, but music wasn't really set up to be a competitive venture. Sure bands and labels and agencies compete and that's healthy and pushes us forward, but as an inter-personal strategy, your best bet is to be cordial and non-annoying because no one likes a jerk but everyone remembers one...

The game is about sustainability now, not who can be the biggest rock-star-jerk in the quickest amount of time. So in the name of sustainability and the Wu-Tang, I'm diversifying my bonds! If I think about my musical portfolio, Frogs Gone Fishin' is my bedrock, the project which has allowed me to establish a TON of network connections around the state and country. Diversification began when I was asked to join The Sessh and it's been nothing short of a blast learning my musical partner Cristian's music and chanking along as Roy raps and lays it down on the drums behind us. Before he joined Frogs, Jeff Jani was in the Big Motif when we started Ape Tit's current formation, Jeff on drums and production, myself on keys and guitar. I have Jeff to thank for much of my current production knowledge, he's a Jedi not only on the drums but in and around Ableton Live, the software we use for tracking and performance. We are certainly headed toward a synthesis of live performance and pre-production (DJ's for lack of a more encompassing term), and my need to do well in the music business, plus a requisite love of the studio (it's been my world, late at night when not touring) has culminated in the music I'm producing and performing now, completely on my own.

There's something intrinsically motivating when success or failure rests entirely on one pair of shoulders. Every snare hit, guitar loop or mixing trick I employ is my decision and a result of what I've absorbed from myriad sources: others producers, band mates and most importantly, my own ears over the years.

What's exciting about starting a new project these days is that the period most bands go through, of struggling to network, are largely over for me, at least in-state. I'll be releasing music at release parties in Breckenridge (320 south 7/18) and Vail (Samana 7/19) and opening for well-known Motet side project, JUNO WHAT, at Phibstock (7/27). The period that will never be over is the endless quest to not only share my music, but getting you to show up and shake your butt like you mean it.

Let's dance so hard our ancestors feel it.